50 Years of the Chevy Camaro, in Pictures

The Chevrolet Camaro was a rush job, a desperate attempt by GM to meet the challenge presented by the ludicrously successful Ford Mustang. Although the Camaro would become the Mustang's most intense rival, its history doesn't strictly parallel that of the Ford product. And with five generations of Camaros already behind us, and a sixth on its way, that heritage is worth charting. From: Car and Driver

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1965 Chevrolet Chevy II Nova

To create the Camaro, Chevrolet started with the compact Chevy II Nova (itself a belated response to Ford's Falcon). In much the same way that the first Mustang is mostly a Falcon under its skin, the first Camaro is mostly Nova bits. That includes its hybrid structure of a unibody with a front subframe. But while Novas like this '65 were in production as the F-car was being developed, the Camaro would be based on the upcoming second-generation Chevy II that would appear as a '68 model.

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1967 Chevrolet Camaro Sport Coupe

The first Camaro went on sale in September 1966 with a base price of $2466. Just over 220,000 were sold that first year compared to more than 480,000 Mustangs during the same period. The base engine was a 230-cubic-inch (3.8-liter) straight-six rated at 140 gross horsepower. The option list was long and included four different small-block V-8s and two big-blocks. The top choice was the 375-hp, 396-cubic-inch (6.5-liter) L78 big-block.

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1967 Chevrolet Camaro convertible

Alongside the coupe, Chevrolet offered the Camaro as a convertible. Priced roughly $240 more than the coupe, just 25,141 convertibles were part of 1967 Camaro production.

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1967 Chevrolet Camaro pace car

The 1967 Indianapolis 500 was paced by a Camaro convertible with a 325-hp version of the 396 big-block V-8 engine under its hood. Chevrolet didn't produce replicas as such, but there were 100 of these Ermine White droptops built for Indianapolis Motor Speedway use, most of which were later sold as used cars.

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1967 Chevrolet Camaro Trans-Am race car

Chevrolet was determined to establish high-performance credentials for the Camaro. It did that with the creation of the 1967 Z/28 powered by the 290-hp DZ302 4.9-liter high-compression V-8. In the hands of team owner Roger Penske and driver Mark Donohue, the Z/28 would prove, after some creative engineering including an acid bath for the body shell, to be racing dynamite in the SCCA Trans-Am series. During the 1967 season, Donohue would win three times. In 1968, the same car (redecorated as a '68) was among those used by Donohue to win 10 of the 13 races that season.

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1968 Chevrolet Camaro Pro Stock

Camaros have long been among America's most-raced cars. Alongside Donohue's Camaro, legends like Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins was campaigning Camaros in NHRA drag racing. Here's Grumpy's 1968 Camaro on its way to winning the very first Pro Stock title at the 1970 Winternationals.

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1968 Chevrolet Camaro Rally SS

Changes for 1968 included "Astro Ventilation" that eliminated the need for vent windows. New taillights and grilles were also part of the package. Choosing the RS option included hidden headlights. The SS option included dual exhaust, red-stripe tires, black accents on the grille, and a retuned suspension.

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1969 Chevrolet Camaro pace car

Structurally, the 1969 Camaro was little different from the first two editions. But the bodywork was more voluptuous and slightly provocative. For the second time, a Camaro paced the Indianapolis 500, and this time Chevrolet produced 3675 replicas of this "Z11" convertible with its signature orange houndstooth upholstery. Fully loaded, these Z11s included both the RS and SS packages, plus the new-for-'69 "ZL2" cowl-Induction hood.

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1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 Sport Coupe

The 1969 Z/28 wasn't mechanically much different from the '67 and '68 models, but many consider it the ultimate Camaro in appearance. During the 1969 model year, the Z/28 was joined by two special-order, low-volume, and race-oriented models. Built through the Central Office Production Order (COPO) system, they were the COPO 9560 and 9561. The 9561 was powered by the 425-hp, L72 iron-block 427-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) big-block V-8, and many of the examples made went to Yenko Chevrolet in Pennsylvania, where they became the Yenko Camaro. Only 69 of the 9560s were built, and they were all powered by the aluminum ZL-1 big-block also rated at 425 horsepower. Those ZL-1 Camaros built in 1969 are considered the most collectible of them all.

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1969 Chevrolet Camaro Red Devil Pro Touring

Hot rods are an essential element of the Camaro's heritage. Over the years, the Camaro has been twisted by its owners into parade floats, jacked-up street racers, gilded Pro Street show cars, and a few truly awesome supercars. GM engineer Mark Stielow's series of first-generation Camaros are thoroughly rebuilt around the vast hoard of aftermarket parts available for the car as well as later-model components adapted to the vehicle.

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1969 Chevrolet Camaro "Blue Maxi Z/29"

Even as GM prepared the second-generation Camaro for 1970, C/D was still playing with the '69. Our "Blue Maxi" remains one of the magazine's most indelible project cars. "The Company Car: a dazzling, dizzying blue wonder that had no easy goals to meet," we wrote. "It would have to handle with its Trans-Am brothers and do us justice on the drag strip. At the same time it would have to be tractable on the highway and it would have to be a credit to its publisher. Mostly it had to represent everything we thought was right about the automobile in an atmosphere of increasing criticism of anything with four wheels—especially four fat wheels."

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1970 Chevrolet Camaro

The second-generation Camaros didn't make it to dealers until February of 1970, making them 1970½ models. Bigger than before and lacking a convertible variant, the new Camaro was nonetheless similarly engineered to the first-generation car, with a front subframe and a unibody rear structure.

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1970 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

From C/D's first road test of the 1970½ Z/28: "Somehow, though, the Z/28 is not as thrilling as it once was. It's more tolerant to driving techniques now, more mature in its behavior. All things considered, it's a better engine now but the loss of a care­free and irrepressible adolescent spirit can never be witnessed without some regret. And although the Z/28 seems much tamer now than it once did, the transformation is more a function of the car than of the increase in displacement."

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1971 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

The Z/28 carried over to the second-generation Camaro, but it was now powered by a 350-cubic-inch (5.7-liter) small-block LT-1 V-8 rated at 360 horsepower. The LT-1 may have sacrificed some of the DZ302's high-revving charisma, but it was a much friendlier everyday driving companion. The Z/28 in this photo features the new RS front end with its split bumpers and driving lights alongside the grille. The high-back seats indicate that the pictured car is a 1971 model—when a switch to SAE "net" power-rating standards dropped the nominal output of the LT-1 to 330 horsepower.

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1972 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

The second-generation Camaro carried on visually almost unchanged through 1973. And yes, the styling was cribbed from Ferrari. Most obviously GM stole from the 1963 250GT Lusso. The big-block V-8s fell off the menu for 1973.

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1974 Chevrolet Camaro Sport Coupe

New federal bumper regulations meant the nose and tail of the Camaro had to be redesigned for 1974. Considering how massive those aluminum bumpers were, the car survived their addition admirably.

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1974 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

The Z/28 got bold new graphics for '74, but the car itself was becoming fat, lazy, and underpowered. The 350 V-8 under the hood was rated at only 245 horsepower. Yawn. Maybe the Z/28 needed to be gone. And by 1975, it was!

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1975 Chevrolet Camaro

With the excision of the Z/28, the most exciting thing about the 1975 Camaro was the new wraparound rear window that slightly—very slightly—increased rear visibility. This was the first year for catalytic converters, and the output of Camaro engines skidded downward. The six could wheeze out only 105 horsepower while the "big" 350 V-8 was rated at a miserable 145 horsepower when equipped with a two-barrel carburetor or 155 horsepower in California and high-altitude areas where a four-barrel arrested the decline.

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1976 Chevrolet Camaro Rally Sport

In '75 the Rally Sport option became a paint-and-tape package. Flat-black paint in the 1970s was a challenge to protect. Painted bumpers were, um, well, er . . . 40 years later, they don't look so good. Little changed with the '76 model.

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1977 Chevrolet Camaro Rally Sport

Midway through the 1977 model year, the Z28 returned shorn of its mid-name slash. Now emphasizing handling, it rode on big, 15x7-inch wheels, and its 350 small-block was rated at a towering 185 horsepower. (In 1977, 185 horses was huge.) Despite this lack of excitement, Chevy sold almost 219,000 '77 Camaros—that was almost three times the sales of its younger, smaller, sport-coupe brother, the Monza.

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1978 Chevrolet Camaro Rally Sport

The big change for '78 was new soft-plastic bumper covers. Also, for the first time, a translucent T-top roof option was also added. Good-looking whitewall tires, too.

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1978 Chevrolet Camaro Z28

Here's the '78 Z28. The drivetrain carried over from '77.

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1981 Chevrolet Camaro Z28

The last of the second-generation Camaros were built as 1981 models. That 11-year model run is the longest for a Camaro generation.

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1982 Chevrolet Camaro Z28

Truly all new, the 1982 Camaro used a full unitized structure, a new coil-spring rear suspension, and struts in the front. And for the first time, the Camaro was a hatchback. But while the new Camaro was modern and gorgeous in that flat-plane 1980s way, it was seriously underpowered. Base Sport Coupes were equipped with the heinous 2.5-liter "Iron Duke" four-cylinder rated at 90 horsepower. A 112-hp, 2.8-liter V-6 was optional while the Z28's base 5.0-liter V-8 with a four-barrel carburetor put out only 145 ponies. But at least that engine could be had with a four-speed manual transmission. Opting for the 165-hp Cross-Fire-injected version of that engine meant going with a three-speed automatic.

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1982 Chevrolet Camaro Z28

In our August 1982 issue, Don Sherman reported this about the new Z28 with Cross-Fire throttle-body injection: "When you drive a Z28, there is one engineering breakthrough that slaps you right in the face: This Camaro is not a committee car. The shock valving is so tight that you feel pebbles on the pavement as you back out of a parking space." Sherman slammed the car's anemic acceleration, however. It took 8.6 seconds for the Camaro to hit 60 mph, and the quarter-mile needed a languid 16.4 seconds to go by at 83 mph.

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1982 Chevrolet Camaro pace car

Introduction of the all-new third generation was reason enough for the Camaro to pace the Indianapolis 500 for the third time. Unfortunately, the pokey 165-hp, Cross-Fire Injection, 5.0-liter V-8 was the most powerful engine available. That's not enough for Indianapolis. So the actual pace car was powered by a modified 5.7-liter V-8 that wasn't offered in a production Camaro.

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1982 DeAtley Trans-Am Chevrolet Camaro race car

Neil DeAtley's two Budweiser-sponsored Camaros dominated the 1983 Trans-Am season. Drivers David Hobbs and Willy T. Ribbs took nine of the 13 events in these tube-frame racers. Ribbs won five races and Hobbs four, with John Paul Jr. adding a tenth Camaro victory for another team. Hobbs won the championship based on his consistent finishes.

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1984 Chevrolet Camaro Z28

Performance was returning to the Z28 by 1983 with the introduction of the 190-hp L69 version of the 5.0-liter V-8. While it still used a four-barrel carburetor, it was now available with a five-speed manual transmission. This is the '84 Camaro, which looked almost identical to the '82 and '83. GM's 700R4 four-speed automatic was optional on most Camaro models by '84.

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1985 Chevrolet Camaro IROC

The big leap forward for Camaro performance in the '80s was the introduction of the IROC-Z with its spectacular 16-inch, five-spoke wheels. But the best news was the newly available Tuned Port Injection (TPI) version of the 5.0-liter V-8 that delivered a sweet 215 horsepower. And so New Jersey got its official car. And the 1985 Camaro IROC-Z earned a spot on C/D's 10Best list that year.

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1985 Chevrolet Camaro Berlinetta

The third-generation Camaro was offered in a now-practically-forgotten Berlinetta model with V-6 or V-8 power and an almost hypnotic digital dashboard. Interest in the Berlinetta shrunk to only about 4500 units in '86, and it wasn't part of the '87 lineup. There's a reason why they're forgotten.

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